Merged-Sun Sentinel/PBP: practice highlights Thurs 7/26

[jim1]

Edit: see post #3 for the PB Post praise of Rod Wright and Soilai

Rookie quarterback John Beck looked very good in drills. He was hitting the corners of the end zone with good accuracy and ended his day hitting David Sutton in traffic in the back of the end zone.

Veteran cornerback Andre' Goodman used the other practice field to run and workout during the rookie practice.

Players raved about the Oklahoma drill, which ended practice. Beck and Gibran Hamdan handed off to the stable of running backs and full backs while the linemen battled in the trenches. Linebacker Kelvin Smith looked fast and agile in his attempts. Beck was really getting into it, slapping players on the head and getting fired up. He talked later about his love for both sides of football and his need to hit somebody, something his position is not conducive to.

Center Samson Satele said he hasn't done an Oklahoma drill since high school and loved the idea of doing it in practice. Coach Cameron said he plans to start the first practice with pads, Sunday night, with the Oklahoma drill.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-dolphinscamp072607,0,3092887.story

 

[YardTime]

Good to hear! Sounds like Beck is continuing to perform well. Things will get interesting when the big boys show up. Also, can't wait for pre-season games!!

 

[jim1]

Palm Beach Post camp highlights Thurs 7/26

Apparently Rod Wright and Soliai are looking great:

Miami seems it will have some much-needed depth at defensive tackle, with Rodrique Wright and rookie Paul Soliai, who shined in the Oklahoma drill featuring one lineman on each side of the ball and a RB.
Wright, who sat out last season with a shoulder injury, looks like a steal. He was a seventh-round pick because of the injury, which was more important to NFL clubs than Wright’s All-America career at Texas.


During rookie camp, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Wright exploded off the ball time after time to get into the backfield. It will be interesting to see if he can do the same thing against the team’s veteran linemen.
Soliai barely was blocked for three days, showing surprising nimbleness and quickness for a 344-pound player.



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/...kie_ca.html?cxntfid=blogs_inside_the_dolphins

 

[ckparrothead]

So Beck had a good day on Tuesday, reportedly a bad day on Wednesday (although many I'm sure will point out that it wasn't particularly BAD), and a good day on Thursday. He's also getting a bit geeked up about the prospect of hitting resuming.

Sounds to me like Beck really took advantage of this rookie camp. Wish Ginn had been able to do the same.

 

[Motion]

Players raved about the Oklahoma drill, which ended practice. Beck and Gibran Hamdan handed off to the stable of running backs and full backs while the linemen battled in the trenches. Linebacker Kelvin Smith looked fast and agile in his attempts. Beck was really getting into it, slapping players on the head and getting fired up. He talked later about his love for both sides of football and his need to hit somebody, something his position is not conducive to.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-dolphinscamp072607,0,3092887.story

Nice

 

[Motion]

Very Nice! Great to have some good young talent on that Dline.

 

[circumstances]

look for beck to be throwing a lot of lead blocks in his career until the coaching staff tells him to knock it off...

 

[jim1]

So Beck had a good day on Tuesday, reportedly a bad day on Wednesday (although many I'm sure will point out that it wasn't particularly BAD), and a good day on Thursday. He's also getting a bit geeked up about the prospect of hitting resuming.

Sounds to me like Beck really took advantage of this rookie camp. Wish Ginn had been able to do the same.

Hopefully Beck can keep it up, he seems to be showing that he has the right stuff. Can't wait to see Ginn do his thing.

Ilie Nastase on Bjorn Borg: We're all out here playing tennis, he's doing something else. That might be the case when it comes to Ginn running in Dolphins camp.

 

[spike owen]

I would say wait to get too excited until they face our starting offensive line, but considering the number of rookies we'll be playing there, I guess they did face our starting line!

 

[jim1]

Very Nice! Great to have some good young talent on that Dline.

I can't tell you first hand about Wright, but I can say this about Soliai: the dude is a man mountain with wheels- both speed and quicks. I saw it at minicamp in June, he has all the potential in the world.

Russ Lande pre draft interview:

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Russ: Paul Soliai is a big defensive tackle. He may be a third, probably a fourth round pick. To me, he's got a lot of the tools to be an elite nose tackle. So if you're a team that's looking for a big, thick-bodied defensive tackle, he has a lot of the traits that you look for.

http://www.phins.com/draft/russ_interview.html

Russ Lande post draft interview:

[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]"I want to talk about the Soliai pick for a moment. He's a perfect nose tackle. You don't have to worry about Keith Traylor killing himself out there because he's not going to have to be the starter. I'll bet you he'll rotate and Soliai will play a ton. Soliai, he's such a talented kid. Ridiculously talented kid. He'll be a rotating guy this year but by his second year he'll be a force at the point of attack. I know a number of 34 teams had him rated the #2 draft tackle in the whole draft."

http://www.phins.com/draft-07/russ_post_interview.html

Rick Gosselin on the latter Fins picks, whom I'm looking forward to seeing at camp:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...tories/043007dnspogosselingrades.3827e9f.html


[/FONT]

Ginn may have been a reach in the top 10, but Booker and Soliai were all value picks where the Dolphins found them. Mormino, Smith and Wright were the backbone of a superb second day.

B

 

[ckparrothead]

I just think it's a shame. Ginn probably could have looked stunning next to guys like Malone, Reed, and Sutton. He and Beck could have continued their long journey of building chemistry with each other and you know he would have gotten plenty of looks.

Ah well. I hope the Ginn family steps in and makes his agent wake the eff up by tomorrow...although I realize that's not fair because given the history we have every reason to believe, at this point, that Matt Thomas and Bryan Wiedmeier were low-balling him just as they did with Ronnie Brown and Jason Allen.

 

[ckparrothead]

That's the first draftnik I've found that liked our second day, liked Mormino, Smith and Wright in particular.

Soliai, I was partying like it was 1999 when we got him. Evidently, so was the war room at Dolphins HQ.

 

[tay0365]

The Dolphin Coaching staff is going to have to be careful with Beck, that kind of mentality is the type where if a QB takes off with the ball, instead of sliding, he will lay a shot on the defensive player for that extra yard....don't get me wrong, I love to hear that, and it shows me that they will have to actually rip his legs out to stop him from playing, but to many shots like that will limit even the toughest QB's career.

All and all, how can anyone that calls themself a real Dolphin fan not be excited with this kid, he is going to be fun to watch once he gets on that field.

 

[jim1]

That's the first draftnik I've found that liked our second day, liked Mormino, Smith and Wright in particular.

Soliai, I was partying like it was 1999 when we got him. Evidently, so was the war room at Dolphins HQ.

I remember that you liked him. His combination of size and mobility is jaw dropping.

 

[JT#1]

The Dolphin Coaching staff is going to have to be careful with Beck, that kind of mentality is the type where if a QB takes off with the ball, instead of sliding, he will lay a shot on the defensive player for that extra yard....don't get me wrong, I love to hear that, and it shows me that they will have to actually rip his legs out to stop him from playing, but to many shots like that will limit even the toughest QB's career.

All and all, how can anyone that calls themself a real Dolphin fan not be excited with this kid, he is going to be fun to watch once he gets on that field.

Beck reminds me alot of steve young in terms of personality.